For the purpose of delivering data to a client, it is known to use the approach of streaming data. Typically, the streamed data include media data such as audio data and/or video data.
In this connection, it is known to use a file streaming approach, according to which data segments of a stream are delivered to a client using unicast requests and responses. Here, the data segments may be files including the media data, e.g. in the form of MPEG-TS packets (MPEG: Moving Picture Experts Group, TS: Transport Stream). The data segments may also have the form of individual media files including the media data, e.g. 3gp files as defined in the 3GPP Technical Specification 26.244 or of MP4 files as defined in ISO/IEC 14496-12 and -14. For example, the stream may correspond to a movie of about one hour total playing time and the data segments may be media files corresponding to consecutive portions of the movie, which each have about a few seconds playing time.
In the file streaming approach, a descriptive file is provided which comprises a list of delivery source identifiers for unicast delivery of the data segments. An example of such a descriptive file is the playlist file according to the HTTP Live Streaming protocol (HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol). In this case, the delivery source identifiers are provided in the form of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers).
When applying the file streaming approach in a mobile communication network, there will typically be a plurality of streaming clients in different mobile terminals which continuously request and receive the data segments, which in turn may result in a significant usage of network resources, e.g. available bandwidth for communication between network devices or for communication between network devices and mobile terminals.
Accordingly, there is a need for techniques which allow for an efficient use of network resources when streaming data in a mobile communication network.